a society for foreign missions. Is it by a fraudulent appropriation to other purposes of the funds which we raise for this specific object? Our annual accounts are before the world; nor has, indeed, a villany of this nature been, at any time, imputed to us. Is it by selection of enthusiastic or fanatical missionaries, or missionaries remarkable for their adherence to obnoxious opinions? Even here it would be hard to say how the purposes of party at home would be forwarded by sending our most active partisans abroad; nor would the advantage to the Church be less evident of a conduct which removed from her bosom those persons whose presence is supposed to disturb her peace, to scenes where their peculiarities could do little harm, while the warmth of their zeal might carry them through obstacles under which a calmer spirit would sink.

I will not, however, dissemble my sentiments, nor can any advantage arise from a pretended ignorance of the nature of those accusations which are brought against us. If it had been the object, if it had been the practice of this Society, to disseminate among the Heathen, or elsewhere, those peculiar views of Christianity which are known by the name of Calvin, believing, as I do, though with sincere respect and esteem for the virtue and talents by which those doctrines have been adorned and supported, but believing, as I do, those doctrines to be most injurious to the Divine Majesty, and most pernicious in their ordinary and natural

effects on the human mind, I, for one, would have sought some other means of contributing to the propagation of the Gospel.

But, I speak from personal knowledge when I say that, in no one case has any preference been given in the choice of missionaries to the followers of Calvin over those of Arminius; and that while enthusiasm of all kinds has been discouraged by the managers of our institution, with a jealousy little less than that which has been exerted against positive immorality, they have been contented to exhort their agents to a more zealous attention to those points in which all Churchmen are agreed, and to moderation as to those on which they themselves were divided.

It is by our fruits, however, that we desire to be judged, and if the exclusive employment of missionaries, either episcopally ordained at home, or furnished by those Lutheran Churches of Germany whence the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge has derived some of its most distinguished labourers: if the translation of the English liturgy into three new languages, and its introduction into weekly use among the negroes of Africa, and the ancient Syrian churches in India; if the consignment of a very considerable sum of money to the entire disposal of the excellent and apostolical Bishop of Calcutta,* and a desire, repeatedly expressed and consistently acted on, to submit our mis

*The Right Rev. T. F. Middleton, D.D., first Bishop of Calcutta.

sionaries in the east to his spiritual guidance and prudent counsels; if these are marks of allegiance to the Church, we may at least disclaim the charge of having departed from her, and we may hope that our attention to her sound form of words and doctrine may be blessed by the Almighty as a means of grace to millions who now sit in darkness.

On these grounds it is that, as Englishmen, as Churchmen, as Christians, as lovers of the virtues and happiness of mankind, I now appeal to your bounty. And that our alms may go up before the sight of God, and be blessed both to the givers, the objects, and the dispensers, let me entreat your prayers through the merits of Him in whose name only is strength or righteousness.

SERMON XI.

THE DISPERSION OF THE SCRIPTURES.

[Preached for the British and Foreign Bible Society, at
Shrewsbury, 5th Sept. 1813.]

REV. xiv. 6.

I saw another angel fly in the midst of Heaven, having the ever lasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell in the earth and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people. BEING called upon, with the permission of your ordinary pastors, to plead in this place the cause of the British and Foreign Bible Society, I conceive it to be incumbent on a minister of the Church of England addressing an assembly of the same persuasion, to examine with patient impartiality the objections which have been levelled against this institution, as unfavourable or unfriendly to the religious establishments of our country. A more grateful task it would indeed have been to consider the broad and general duties of diffusing religious knowledge, and the glorious facilities which our present combination affords for sowing the seeds of eternal life in soils the most distant and unkindly! For, whether we seek to turn the nominal Christian from the error of his ways, or whether it be

the blinded heathen whose eyes we strive to open, no means of improvement can be employed more effectual, none, assuredly, less obvious to objection, than the dispersion of the oracles of God. Other preachers may be intemperate or careless; they may shock by hasty zeal, or disgust by unsuitable demeanor, but these holy volumes are every where pure, and consistent, and peaceable. The indolence of the times, the difficulty of access, the drawn sword of persecution may impede, perhaps, the missionaries' progress; but though the feet of those that bear good tidings may linger on the mountains, the word of God runneth very swiftly; and wherever education has gone before, the natural curiosity of mankind will secure to these wonderful testimonies a favourable and attentive reception. If, indeed, the one great object which is pursued by the society in whose behalf I now address you, be regarded; if the effects which it has already produced be estimated, and those which its augmented means of action may enable it hereafter to accomplish, it might be hoped that no scanty blessing, no unhallowed destiny would follow an association like ours. It might be hoped, without the guilt of enthusiastic vanity, that the prophecy of my text were even now to receive its fulfilment, that like that angel whom John beheld bearing on his mighty wings the confession of Christ's religion, our society should advance in the strength of faith conquering and to conquer, till all that now oppose or distrust shall have unlearnt